Maybe it is my occasional tendency to romanticise the good Captain Hook, which I should hold responsible.

Until now I had always assumed that it was Hook who had drawn Milah’s portrait on that sheet of paper which Baelfire finds on board the Jolly Roger in 2.22, “And Straight On ‘til Morning”.

For me, the idea of Killian Jones as a person with a secret artistic streak has always gone hand in hand with the notion that said portrait was an expression of grief. Maybe Killian could have drawn it several years after Milah’s death, feeling the memory of her face slip away from him and fearing he would lose it forever, I thought. Perhaps drawing was a talent Killian had always possessed, but never really honed before Neverland, initially just to ease the passage of time, helping him to stay sane. (Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day is coming to my mind, the longer I think about this.)

So far, so bitter-sweet melodramatic melancholic.

Yesterday afternoon, while doing the laundry, I listened to the 2.22 audio commentary by Colin O’ Donoghue and producer David H. Goodman, in which David Goodman clearly states that the portrait wasn’t done by Hook, but by a still alive Milah, as a self-portrait.

Judging by the sound of his voice,even Colin O’Donoghue appears to have been a tad surprised and disappointed when he heard that.

That makes more sense to me, though, I have to say Because doesn't Rumple have a similarly artistic picture of Baelfire? I'm guessing Milah drew that, too, before she left. Which is also a very poignant thought, in a slightly different way.

Rumple owning a similar picture of Bae would indeed speak volumes about her feelings for the son she left behind when she sailed away with Hook. What I like about this idea is that Milah would get a little bit more fleshed-out this way, since the character had so very little screen time.

But still...

I guess I must have entirely forgotten about the Baelfire portrait. The only other (and also somewhat similar) drawing I remember is the one that Pan has of Henry.